The past week and a half have been extraordinary for me and for the non-profit I lead as executive director. On Thursday, June 6, I attended the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame reception to receive our first award from this organization: A $4,000 check to help underwrite our peer support groups for children and youth of incarcerated parents. It was so exciting that Charles Stuart had to call me back up to actually hand me the check. That’s when you know I am excited. On Tuesday, June 11, I flew to Washington, DC, to be honored by the White House as a Champion of Change for my work and the work of Arkansas Voices on behalf of children of the incarcerated and their families. I was one of 12 selected to be honored. It felt pretty amazing for me. My dear colleagues, Satori Barnes at the US Federal Office of Probation joined me at the event, as did Shawanna Lumsey, a friend, a former staff member and the courageous plaintiff in the 8th Circuit Court case against the Arkansas Department of Correction for the use of shackles and handcuffs during her medical transport, labor and child birth. She won the case on the constitutional grounds of cruel and unusual punishment, but received a mere $1 in her settlement, unlike other plaintiffs in similar cases. And another of my colleagues and friends from Arkansas came to DC to see me honored: Maggie Carroll, a recent Clinton School graduate whose capstone project involved community photojournalism with children with incarcerated parents in our program. My family could not attend, as we got very short notice, but these three were next-best to having my beloved family with me. And I was able to spend time with so many of my national colleagues among the 12 honorees, and others who should have been honored. I also held the colleagues I worked with on the Soros Fellowship in my heart, each of whom could have been honored for their hard work, such as Claire Scheuren in Tuscon, AZ, Ellen Berry in San Francisco, Denise Johnson in Pasadena, Joan Burnham in Austin, TX, Deborah Linnett in Massachusetts, Angie Vachio in New Mexico, Ebony Rhulande in Minneapolis, MN, Yvonne Jackson in Michigan, Kathy Russell in Washington State, and the statewide MAFTI coalition in Montana. I honor you all, as each of you have done the good work to make the lives of these children less stigmatized and better able to connect with their parents inside. But wait; let me tell you about yesterday. I got home on Thursday and our annual Father’s Day event at the State Capitol was on Friday. The choir from the Osceola, AR Department of Community Correction drove the 2 and ½ hours to Little Rock to perform at our event. Their Gospel singing was comprised primarily of old African-American hymns, and the beauty of the hymns and the voices singing them were incredibly moving. We read letters from fathers in Arkansas prisons and from children with dads in prison. The event came about because we had held the annual Mothers in Prison, Children in Crisis event for many years, as it was a national campaign we joined. But one day I received letters from dads in the state prison, asking why there was no event to create awareness about their children. From their request we began holding annual Fathers in Prison, Children Need their Dads event at the Capitol. Governor Beebe issued a beautiful proclamation declaring June 14, 2013 to be the Fathers in Prison, Children Need their Dads Day and each choir member received a certificate of appreciation from Arkansas Voices. We thank DCC for honoring us with the choir’s attendance. We bought them catfish in the capitol café and I had such fun talking with them, hearing, too, their concerns about their children, many of whom they had not seem since they went into the DCC unit, mostly due to its location being difficult to reach by their families. We discussed ideas about how to make things better, and I gave them our Legal Guide for Incarcerated parents, describing their legal rights and responsibilities. I left the Capitol well-reminded of why I love this work and my energy has not diminished in25 years of working with these individuals, their children and families. It is a barely known fact that this work is the most satisfying and the most heartbreaking work, but with the greatest chance of hope, given the power of the human spirit to redeem and transform. What a wonderful week and a half. And to top it off, I go to the mall to replace sometimes that were lost in baggage coming back from DC, and one of my formerly incarcerated mothers comes up, very pregnant, to tell me how well she is doing. 25 years and I am still blessed nearly every day with stories and events such as these, I am so honored to do this work that sometimes I just cry for my good fortune. Dee Ann Newell
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:02:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015